Published October 2, 2024
A survey of Chinese tourists revealed most make bookings within a month of departure, reflecting uncertainties over visa rules and safety.
A “striking” majority of Chinese travellers are booking trips within a month of departure – often even later – reflecting fears of sudden changes in immigration rules that could derail earlier reservations, an industry organisation said.
In a survey of 15,000 people by China Trading Desk, 73 per cent said they arrange their itineraries relatively late despite the likelihood of higher prices, according to founder and CEO Subramania Bhatt, with some plans only taking shape one week or less ahead of time.
“They need to mind travel rule changes,” he said.
The last-minute timing reflects sustained skittishness about shifts in immigration rules outside mainland China since the pandemic, Bhatt said, with the percentage of late bookers up from the 65 per cent reported in early 2023.
Trip planning times averaged 10 to 12 weeks before Covid-19 hit, Bhatt said. The pandemic and unpredictable geopolitical changes have sparked numerous alterations to visa rules, with some making travel easier and some complicating matters.
Popular destinations Singapore and Thailand, for example, began allowing Chinese visitors to enter visa-free starting in the first quarter this year – reciprocating a move from Chinese authorities to drum up tourism after the lifting of pandemic restrictions last year.
Washington, however, tightened visa restrictions in May on Chinese officials who might travel to the US and limited visa stay periods for members of the country’s Communist Party in December 2020. Visa delays and insufficient flight capacity were cited as holding back a full recovery in outbound travel by the CEO of Trip.com Group, the country’s largest online travel agency.
Chinese households took 101 million cross-border trips last year, 60 per cent of the figure from 2019. The China Tourism Academy expects 130 million outbound trips this year.
Fears over safety in regions like Southeast Asia and North America, Bhatt added, can also motivate would-be travellers to keep their plans in flux until a later hour than was previously typical.
Chinese travellers are aware prices tend to rise for late bookings, Bhatt said. “They’ve just given up and said ‘OK, this is what the price is.’”
A summary of the survey results said the trend “underscores a shift towards spontaneity and a preference for last-minute planning, reflecting an underlying uncertainty in travel decisions.”
Despite the uncertainty, the wave of late bookings allows hotels and airlines – several of which are clients of China Trading Desk – to schedule their promotions on shorter schedules before peak periods such as this week’s National Day break, Bhatt said.
The survey also found that first-time travel declined 24.4 per cent in the third quarter compared to the previous one, with travellers preferring “familiar destinations rather than uncharted territory”.
But more than 80 per cent of travellers prefer “longer” stays lasting five to 15 days, the summary document said, “reflecting a desire for more in-depth and extended travel experiences”. This gives destinations and brands a chance to retool their offerings for “prolonged, experience-rich journeys”.
Independent travel is also on the rise, the survey found, as tourists seek cultural, culinary and “luxury” experiences that organised groups are less likely to offer, Bhatt said.
Four in five bookings in China for offshore trips are made separate from tour groups, the China-based travel platform Fliggy said in a summer travel report.
As evidence of that trend, Fliggy said, the transaction volume for international cruises increased by more than 20 times over July and August compared to the same period in 2023, and the volume of car rentals expanded five times.
Egypt, France, Russia, Serbia and Turkey are popular destinations for those travellers, the platform said, with bookings for those countries doubling year-on-year from January through August.
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